Press Room

SITI COMPANY RETURNS MARCH 9 - "DEATH AND THE PLOUGHMAN"

For general information about tickets, seating, parking, etc., for performances and events happening at the Center for the Arts, please contact the ticket office directly at 703-993-2787.

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR THE ARTS WELCOMES BACK
ANNE BOGART’S SITI COMPANY IN A POIGNANT AND WITTY TREATISE ON LIFE AND DEATH…
BUT MOSTLY ON LIFE…
DEATH AND THE PLOUGHMAN
Wednesday, March 9, 8PM

Fairfax, Virginia, February 8, 2005—Death and the Ploughman, a hauntingly beautiful play written in Germany in 1401, tells the story of a man who loses his beloved wife in her prime and demands answers for his ensuing pain. His pleas for a response from Death result in an extraordinarily contemporary exploration of what it means to be alive. Anne Bogart, praised for her exacting use of movement and gesture, puts the SITI Company through their paces on this new production, a commentary on the ravages of life and loss. Death and the Ploughman comes to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts Concert Hall for one performance, Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 8PM. An artistic discussion, free to ticketholders is held 45-minutes prior to the curtain on the hall’s Grand Tier.

Death and the Ploughman, never before produced in the United States had its premiere at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio in April 2004 and a subsequent production in New York. Critics hailed the production as "a prayerful and surprisingly playful marriage of the medieval and the modern," (The Columbus Dispatch) and "visually elegant" (The New York Times).

Currently, the experimental troupe is co-presenting Intimations for Saxophone at Arena Stage, praised for its "ravishing staging" (The Washington Post), and The Washington Post called Score, SITI’s recent piece about composer Leonard Bernstein, "heady intellectual stuff."

Michael West’s translation of Death and the Ploughman was first staged at London’s Gate Theater in 2002, prompting Anne Bogart to create her own interpretation. In this incarnation, Will Bond plays the anguished ploughman with a fervency suited to his grief. Stephen Webber, as Death, calmly responds to the ploughman’s emotions. Rather than rising to stridency, he infuses the character with a wry intelligence.

Tickets for DEATH AND THE PLOUGHMAN are $34, $26, $17. Charge by phone at 703-218-6500 or visit www.tickets.com. The Center for the Arts complex is located on the Fairfax campus of George Mason University at the intersection of Braddock Road and Route 123. Paid parking is located in the deck adjacent to the mainstage Concert Hall and FREE parking is located in university lot K. Visit www.gmu.edu/cfa

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT MASON is a program of George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, the professional presenting arm of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The College of Visual and Performing Arts exists to create an academic environment in which the arts may be considered both as individual disciplines and as interdisciplinary forms that strengthen each other. Believing that an education in the arts is deepened by regular contact with the work of distinguished visiting artists, the College draws on a variety of professional presenting and producing units where artists from across the country and around the world regularly perform, give master classes, work with students during extended residencies, and interact with the community in a variety of other ways. These programs at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall, TheaterSpace, Galleries, Harris Theater, and other venues, provide a diverse selection of challenging and entertaining cultural experiences for the University community, as well as Northern Virginia and the greater Washington, D.C. area. The College houses four academic departments: Art and Visual Technology, Dance, Music and Theater.